Episode 486: July 4, 2014

Corn farmers have a saying “knee high by the Fourth of July” to gauge whether their crop will be a good one, and we’ll look at the grains that go into making “America’s Native Spirit” with veteran Bourbon distiller Dave Pickerell on this Independence Day episode. Corn, rye, wheat, and barley each add their own unique character to a Bourbon, along with many of the exotic grains distillers experiment with, and Dave will break them down for us on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Glasgow leaders give their blessing to a new distillery along the River Clyde, and we’ll have more on new distilleries in Ireland and New Zealand, along with an update on new whiskies from Highland Park, Jim Beam, and Kininvie. This week’s tasting notes include Barrell Bourbon, Jim Beam’s new Signature Craft Quarter Cask, High West’s American Prairie Reserve, and a rare Glengoyne 15 matured exclusively in Bourbon casks.

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This week on WhiskyCast, you'll hear from Australian entrepreneur David Prior on why he wanted to buy Scotland's Bladnoch Distillery after making his fortune in the food business. Prior hopes to restart production at Bladnoch in time for the distillery's 200th anniversary in 2017, and his family is on board -- though there was a promise of a pony involved in the approval process.

In the news, the report on the Silver Trail Distillery explosion is in, and the tragedy is leading to a new safety initiative involving Kentucky distillers and state officials. France's Glann ar Mor Distillery is getting a reprieve after the Donnay family planned to close it two weeks from now, and we'll have plenty of new whiskies to talk about...

A California federal judge has dismissed the class-action lawsuit against Maker's Mark over the "handmade" claim on its label. Judge John Houston used the same logic as a Florida judge did in dismissing a similar lawsuit in May...that no reasonable consumer would interpret the "handmade" claim to believe that no equipment was used at all to make the whisky.

More details (and the PDF of the ruling) are available at our web site...